Social
Justice in the For-Profit Sector Overview

Social justice can be a part of almost
any job in any sector. Many for-profit companies work to leverage their
products, employees, and profits to better their community or the world. Some
companies go even further and are social entrepreneurs that work to better the
world using market-based approaches.

While
companies may not have an explicit social justice mission, many companies have
projects or foundations that serve social justice causes. Almost all Fortune
500 companies have a charitable arm/foundation. Many major corporations will do
social justice projects related to the field of work or industry. For example, General Mills, a food products company, works to address
the issues of nutrition and hunger in the community whereas Intel, a company that creates semiconductors, works
to promote science and math education and access to technology worldwide.

In
this section we will cover the following social justice endeavors:

Corporate Social
Responsibility

Social Entrepreneurship

Financial Services and Consulting

Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR)

The
Corporate Social Responsibility Department is a department within a company
that works to extend the company’s overall mission by creating policies of
built-in, self-regulations. They do this so that the company can have a
positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers,
employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public
sphere. Corporate social responsibility department officers look to encourage
community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminate practices that harm
the public sphere, regardless of legality. Those working in Corporate Social
Responsibility are guided by the mantra of honoring a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit.

B Corp:
Lists of organizations certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous
standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and
transparency.

Social Entrepreneurship

Social
entrepreneurs use entrepreneurial methods to create ventures that provide
solutions to social issues. Social entrepreneurs work to create social change
by generating profit along with creating social capital in creative and
innovative ways. Famous examples include TOMS Shoes, a company that donates a
pair of shoes to children in the developing world for every pair of shoes
purchased, and Warby Parker, an eyeglass company that donates a pair of glasses
to someone in need with each purchase.

Social
entrepreneurship can happen at any sector, not just in the non-profit sector,
and often works across sectors. It is different from traditional charities
because social entrepreneurs look to create sustainable revenue sources and
rely less heavily on donors. Social entrepreneurs need to be motivated,
innovative, flexible, and creative. Working together in teams with diverse
skill sets will be crucial to making any idea or prototype a success. Finally,
social entrepreneurs want to use these skills to be a catalyst for social
change with a passion for a cause.

Social Venture Network: An organization with the mission to support and employer leaders who leverage business to serve the greater good.

Financial Services and Consulting

If
you are interested in pursuing a career in finance or consulting, there are
many finance/consulting organizations both in the private and not-for-profit
sector working towards various social justice causes, particularly combating
poverty. Various not-for-profits and for-profits have created an entire
subsector of the financial industry focusing on microfinance to help empower
those living in poverty. On the consulting side, not-for-profit consulting has
been growing as an industry in order to help maximize impact, efficiency, and
budgets for non-profits.

Microcredit/Microfinance: Microcredit, which was designed as a means to
empower people in poverty while protecting them from predatory lenders, works
by building credit, capital, and stability. With this money, they can invest in
creating their own businesses, education and nutrition for their children, or
simply building assets and a credit history. Microcredit is generally targeted
at empowering those who are the least likely candidates for traditional loans
such as women or the unemployed. People build up their credit with microfinance
starting with a first loan of generally under $100 and building up until they
can secure loans from traditional banking institutions. Microfinance is not
limited to just one sector. Various not-for-profit organizations, multinational
banks, and local banks have microfinance programs.

Microinsurance: Microinsurance, is taking hold as a new method
of combating poverty. Microinsurance is focused on offering low-premium coverage
to communities. The idea behind microinsurance is that even as people in the
developing world accumulate assets, they still need to be protected against
natural disasters, crop failure, or sickness. Without these protections, people
could easily lose their investments and assets and go back into poverty
overnight.

Patient Capital: Patient capital is a term used by the Acumen
Fund to invest in social ventures in the developing world. While it is similar
to investment done within the developed world, it focuses on long-term rather
than short-term returns, and also focuses on maximizing both profit and social
change. It differs from microfinance because the investments are much larger
ranging from $300,000 to $2,500,000.

Not-For-Profit Consulting: Not-for profit consulting is a branch within
consulting focusing on not-for-profits. While many consulting firms have
not-for-profit clients, others, such as Bridgespan and Dewey Kaye, focus solely
on the not-for-profit sector. Working with these organizations, the tasks and
responsibilities will be similar to consulting for other fields; however, some
specialized services that not-for-profit consultants provide include helping
secure and develop a Board of Directors, guiding the philanthropy for
foundations, and planning fundraising drives and campaigns. Not-for-profit
consulting provides the critical thinking required of consulting while also
providing the chance to help not-for-profit organizations at any stage refine
and optimize their services to the community. While many of the requirements
and skills are transferable, some firms, such as Jacobson Consulting
Applications, require knowledge of the not-for-profit industry as well as the
tools that not-for-profits use (such as Raiser’s Edge, a fundraising program)
from their consultants.

Microfinance Club of New York: The mission of the MCNY is to be a
leading forum for the free exchange of information and ideas about microfinance
and to disseminate readily understandable, transparent and succinct information
so as to further the microfinance field.

Columbia Resources

Columbia Entrepreneurship: Mission is to help Columbia’s students, faculty and alumni launch Columbia-born ventures. Its website is a central location for entrepreneurship-centric resources at Columbia.

Earth Institute: Brings together the people and tools needed to address some of the world's most difficult problems, from climate change and environmental degradation, to poverty, disease and the sustainable use of resources.